So, you’ve been a band for a decade. How do you celebrate your 10th anniversary? In the case of Bad Mary, you re-record some of the songs from your debut album, and these updated versions sound as they should with the passing of time.
“Losing Control” is still one of those songs that you can refer to as “scuzzy, bratty, and punk,” but for all that – and it is all of those things – it is also a pretty gifted sugary power-pop offering. That goes for the rest of “Better(er) Days”: relentlessly optimistic, “Hangover” relishes that thought, and the title track itself stomps about like it owns the place.
This is all about hedonism. I suppose things were in 2014. Life seemed happier back then, and it all comes out in “Don’t Know Where The Line Is” – and even if you did in those days, you still stamped all over it, right?
The fact that a lot of these are sub-two minutes cannot be underestimated. Why? Because if three minutes is the usual optimum length for pop songs, then “Forget About It” is its sugar-fuelled counterpart. A three-year-old on an ice-cream bender isn’t this full of beans, and “Ninja” lays it bare, sniffing glue with the misfit kids out the back.
It’s a fittingly dumb end to “Better(er) Days,” and whether you’ve been into them since the start kind of doesn’t matter because the rush of this quarter of an hour is as much fun. There to be enjoyed, not overthought.
Rating: 8/10
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